mostly true . partly true . totally true . too true for comfort . as they happen . sometimes later . in no particular order . celebrations . commisserations . contemplations . mostly about the natural world and getting along in it

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Promise of spring

We go on the mission every spring, in March, right before we leave grey and dirty Illinois for a spring break week or two in someplace warm and sunny like Arizona or California. Sometimes we dress appropriately and sometimes, we get the whim on the way home from lunch out and go in shoes that are not right for the mud and pants we really should not have gotten that wet. But when the mood to hunt the first flower of spring strikes, common sense it not a ruling factor. We know where to find them. Along a creek in a certain forest preserve, near the banks, in places where the creek wraps around low flat areas. We know they are there but we just can’t see them at first and we begin to wonder if we are too early. But soon, one of us catches the pattern of the contrast of texture of the smooth spathe of the flower with the roughness of the leaf litter and begins to see the shape, pointed tip above the swelling curve, and once that person points them out, the others begin to see them as well. We mince around carefully trying not to step on any of them and everyone else gets enough of the adventure a bit before I get my fill and get my pictures taken. They urge me to join them back on the path, and home we go, content to have found our first flower of spring and the promise that it brings of more conventionally pretty flowers and warmer weather to come.